


The DUFF

by Little_RedHood6



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Dean Winchester - Freeform, F/M, Fluff, Gabriel - Freeform, Reader Insert, Remake, Sam Winchester - Freeform, The Duff - Freeform, castiel - Freeform, deanxreader
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2018-10-22 11:16:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10695894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_RedHood6/pseuds/Little_RedHood6
Summary: The reader and Dean are neighbors in college. The reader learns about the new social status called the DUFF. The reader is desperate a looks for help.  Dean helps her reinvent herself while she tutors Dean. But she didn’t expect to fall for him.





	1. The DUFF

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Dean x reader, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

You could never have figured out where it all went wrong when everything in your life collapsed on itself. How could everything go so wrong in so little time?  It must have been the day when you thought it would be a fantastic idea to go to a fraternity party the night before an important exam. How could you have been so stupid? But no, it wasn’t the fact that it was a school night or the fact that you had the late shift the next night at the bar. No, it was the unbelievable idea that you thought you could go one night without embarrassing yourself, or for that matter, able to be normal for one night.

               It was one of those days where all you could do was think about getting out of class. The professor would just not stop talking! The ancient man dragged out all of his words in such a slow manner that you thought time might have stopped. It was Thursday and you needed lunch, desperately. But no, the professor just had to repeat everything you needed to prepare for tomorrow’s exam.

              You sat in the half-filled auditorium, looking at the big screen. Tapping your pen on your desk you look at the time on your computer. Two minutes left till the long awaited freedom. It wasn’t that you didn’t like your class, it was your favorite in fact and you were the top of your class, but you just couldn’t find the energy to care. It was a long and vigorous shift last night so you were already tired and irritable. Luckily you had tonight off.

              After packing up your items and slipping your leather bag over your shoulder, you walked outside, the sun blinding you for a moment.

“Y/N!” you heard your name called out from your right side. Turning towards the sound, you squinted your eyes looking for the person who called out. Sitting on the cement wall waiting for you were your two best friends, Lizzy and Jenna. The two girls were both taller than you, so naturally, when they both got up, you tilted your head slightly.

“Ready for some lunch?” Lizzy asked. Looking at your friend you took in what she decided to wear today, ripped jeans, a white lace camisole, with brown boots. Her blonde hair was curled and almost everything about her looked flawless. You had to give her credit, the girl knew fashion and one day hoped to be an aspiring fashion designer.

“Yeah I was thinking about Polly’s; does that sound good?” commented Jenna, and you glanced over at her. Her shiny black hair was put up in a ponytail and her tan was looking great. Jenna was the jock of your group, captain of your college’s soccer team and coach of a young girls’ team as a job. Today she was in jeans with Nike’s and a white t-shirt.

“Sounds perfect!” you responded. You looked down at your red and black flannel with jeans and sneakers and thought it would be good enough.

Walking into the small café, you instantly smelled the coffee and smell of dusty old wood. You each took a seat at a table next to a window. When the waiter came he said hello to the two other girls by name, _he must be new_ , you thought because you’ve been a regular at Polly’s for two years now, how could he not know you? You each ordered a sandwich and coffee then began light chatting.

“Uh-oh, don’t look now but it’s Amy Roberts.” Jenna quickly whispered then sipping her coffee as if trying to hide her face.

_Ugh_ , Amy Roberts, the rich snobby red head, who only attends the university because her father is a big contributor to the school. You weren’t even sure what she was studying.

She sashayed right over to your table and you immediately felt everything you just ate rise in your stomach.

“Hello ladies, I just wanted to give you these invitations for my party tonight, it’s at my fraternity house, hope to see you there.” She set the two envelopes on the table. To say you were shocked was an understatement.

“Why are you inviting us?” you asked curiously.

Amy then laughed as if you had said was a joke. “I’m not inviting you silly, I’m inviting Lizzy and Jenna. I would invite you, but I only have so many invitations, sorry maybe next time.” She faked a sad frown. _That’s it_ , you thought, _today is the day, I swear I will rip those fake eyelashes off so hard you won’t be able to see two feet in front of yourself!_ But as it turns out, Jenna beat you to it.

“Well, here we can fix that.” She took her invitation and tore it in half. Jenna turned to you and gave you the other half with a smile. It made you happy to know she had your back, as fearless as ever.

Amy faked a smile, “Great! Can’t wait to see you there Y/N, but wear something nice.” She had the nerve to look you up and down as if you weren’t even worthy to look at. “See you later.” And she sashayed back out of the café, to join her little group of followers.

“That girl makes me want to scream.” You sighed in frustration and the girls giggled at you.

“I just feel really bad for Dean,” Lizzy said. Right, Dean Winchester, Amy’s ex-boyfriend, but then again he could be her boyfriend. They were the type of couple that would be on and off again constantly, like strobe lights. He was the quarterback for your school’s football team, the school neanderthal, your childhood neighbor, and unfortunately, your current neighbor.  You both lived in a three-story building, your apartments on the top floor, right next to each other. You could hear him partying every other night while you were up late trying to study.

“Well, he got himself into that mess.” You said, believing every word of it. You just didn’t go for guys like that. The ones who think they own the world because they’re strong and find that everything comes easily to them. You were into the ones who actually had the intellect and could hold a conversation without the words “nice ass” or “workout”. Someone like the guy sitting on the other side of the restaurant. The light brown hair, hazel eyed angel. His name is Gabriel, but everyone calls him Gabe. He is in your communications class and he plays guitar, but you never actually spoke to him.

  
“Y/N…Y/N!” you snap out of your daydreaming to turn your eyes back to your friends.

“Sorry, what were you saying?” You quickly tried to cover up you’re unbearably awkward staring.

“Aww, Jenna, Y/N was making love eyes to Gabe, how cute.” Lizzy teased.

“I wasn’t making ‘love eyes’,” You retorted with air quotes, “I was just simply gazing with interest.”

“Yeah, well I heard from Chuck that Gabe was going to be there tonight at Amy’s party,” Jenna informed while poking you.

“Really?” You couldn’t help but hope.

“Uh-huh, so let’s go back to your place and pick out an outfit for you.”

“Isn’t what I’m wearing fine?” you said. You felt really comfortable and didn’t feel like changing.

“Yeah if we were going hunting!” Lizzy exaggerated.

“Fine let’s just get this done.” You rolled your eyes, not feeling like dressing up or being in a large crowd. But to be able to have the chance to talk to Gabe was too great to pass up.

 

 

 

Four hours later you three are standing on the doorstep of a large and beautiful house.

“Y/N, are you sure want to go in like that, just please take my extra shirt.” Lizzy pointed to her purse with the tight-fit strapless shirt.  
“No way, this is my lucky party shirt!” you said. You were in a black skirt with a red Led Zeppelin t-shirt and black combat boots.

She just smiled and rolled her eyes as she and Jenna walked inside the house. As you walked in, you had to look out for the drunk people who almost spilled their drinks all over you. The house crowded with people everywhere, half of them you’ve never even seen before and some you were sure weren’t even students. It was loud with music booming and people cheering over drink games.

The girls lead you to the backyard next to the pool, where there was just a little bit more space. The air was hot and sticky and all you wanted was to be home with a good book and your bed. You casually looked around, hoping to catch a glance at Gabe, but no luck. When you turned back around, the girls were dancing.

“Come dance with us!” Lizzy exclaimed.

“No, no I don’t think that’s a good idea.” You said, feeling awkward just standing there, but _knowing_ you’ll look awkward if you tried to dance.

“Pleasssssse!” they pleaded.  
“I think I’ll just go get something to drink.” You said, but it didn’t matter because they were already busy dancing again. You just smiled to yourself, glad that at least they were having fun.

As you walked inside you saw Kevin, one of the smarter but more popular people of your school, who was also not that bad looking either.

“Hey… what’s your name again?” he asked you, clearly buzzed.

You rolled your eyes in annoyance, “Y/N, Kevin we have English together.” you stated.

“Right, Y/N, have you seen Lizzy and Jenna? Did they come with you?” you could smell the beer on his breath.

“Uh, yeah. They’re right out back.”

“Thanks.” He said as he drunkenly stumbles away.

Wanting to take a load off, you walked over to the table with drinks. While pouring your drink you heard a laugh somewhere near you. You turned to your right to see that the laugh belonged to none other than Dean Winchester.

“Y/N! What the on earth are you doing here, at a frat party, on a school night!” he said with a surprised look. You saw he was wearing a tight black t-shirt with jeans.

“Shut up Winchester, you make me sound like a prudent old lady. For your information, I will go to my occasional party.” He chuckled.

“Yeah well I can sometimes hear your party right next door, I’m guessing your bedroom,” he wiggled his eyes, “you know, thin walls and all.” You gasped at him and lightly punched his shoulder.  

“Relax Y/N, I’m just kidding. So where are your girls, Jenna and Lizzy?”

“How should I know Dean, I’m not their secretary.”

“Well you, should, as you know, their DUFF,” Dean said as if it was obvious.

“As their what?” You raised your eyebrows.

“Their DUFF. Designated, Ugly, Fat, Friend.”

“What did you just say to me?” you couldn’t believe this, you were about to slap the man.

“You know, you’re the person everyone goes to when they want to be with Lizzy or Jenna. Every group of friends has them. The approachable one. The person who is less good looking than the rest of them.” He gestured his arms towards you. But you just blinked at him, not understanding and a little bit ticked off.

“Okay, for example, see that guy over there, the freshmen, he’s new to our football team. Well, Paige, the _hot_ senior, is talking to him, to gain info about me. Probably to see if I’m single.” He pointed to where the pair were standing on the white staircase.

You looked over to see a tall gangly looking boy who was clearly nervous around the good looking girl who was sort of paying attention to him. You saw her whisper something to him, then they both glanced at Dean. Paige gave him a kiss on the cheek and then turned on her heels to leave him. As she walked past you two she gave a little flirtatious wave to Dean. You saw he gave her a charming smile and wink and you couldn’t help but roll your eyes.

He turned back to you and said, “See what I mean.” Taking this in, you looked around to find more and more of these situations going on.

“Okay Y/N, about how many times a day do people ask you about Jenna or Lizzy?”

You thought for a moment, “A fair amount, but so what I’m their- “he cut you off.

“Now how many people ask you about you?” You couldn’t answer, and that really hurt. Hearing all of this made you sick. So many thoughts were flying through your head and you couldn’t take it. The crowd, the noise, the heat, and new information was just all too much.

“See Y/N, this was a good talk.” _And this douchebag was too much_ , “I feel like-” But he didn’t get to finish his sentence because you through your beer all over him. Too angry to think you stormed out of the house, almost pushing someone over in the process. Lizzy drove you and there was _no way_ you were going to go back in there. You had no cash on you so you couldn’t get a taxi. Sighing, you picked up your feet and began walking home.

You replayed the last ten minutes in your head, getting angrier just thinking about it. But you couldn’t help to reflect on your past relationship with your two friends. Yeah sure, they were taller, a little bit more fit, and beautiful, while you were smaller and more petite, but you weren’t fat or ugly by no means. The nerve of some people! But then you remembered how when the waiter said hello to Jenna and Lizzy, Amy gave invitations to _only_ them, and Kevin asked where they were. And that was only today!

You just looked up at the open night sky and screamed an angry cry. People were assholes and you weren’t going to let it get to you.

 

 

And you didn’t, until the next day. When you woke up it was your first thought and it pissed you off.  
“Ah, fuck it.” You said, giving up on how looked. You rolled out of bed and kept on your gray t-shirt and green and gray plaid pajama pants. Your hair was in a messy bun you noticed but just shrugged your shoulders. You applied deodorant, brushed your teeth, slipped on your sneakers, grabbed your bag, and headed for your day of classes.  

When you got to your psychology class you were used to the uncomfortable feeling of eyes on you. You had been through three classes of this and library full of students. You took your seat towards the back of the auditorium.

“Hey Duffy, need help studying? And nice PJ’s.” Oh great, it was Dean, just the idiot you didn’t want to see.

“No. Go away.”

“Ouch, why so grumpy, you shouldn’t be mad at me, I should be mad at you, you ruined my favorite shirt.” You gave him a death glare.

“Dean,” you started turning towards his desk next to yours, “you called me fat and ugly. Of course, I’m mad at you!”

“What… no, I didn’t. I called you the DUFF.”

“Yeah well excuse me that it stands for designated ugly fat friend!”

“Yes, but the DUFF doesn’t actually have to be fat or ugly. Tony Romo is a Dallas Cowboy, doesn’t mean he has to ride a horse.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” You said, annoyed to the point of punching him.

“That’s not the point, the point is I would never call you, or anyone for that matter fat or ugly. It’s just the word and it stuck.”

“Oh my god, get out of here before I murder you.” You replied fed up. He got up and walked away but then came back a second later.

“You’re not really going to murder me are you?” he asked. You replied with what you felt was a murderous stare. “Okay, you really are.” Then he walked away for good.

 

When you walked out of the of your seminar, you overheard Dean talking to your professor.

“Mr. Winchester I’m sorry but you can’t keep playing with these grades. Another F is not acceptable. You will be suspended from the football team.” Dean looked crushed and you couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

“Please Professor, is there anything I can do?” he asked with desperation in his voice.

“Once you bring your grade up to a B, you can play at games, until then only one practice a week.”  
  


Before either of them could notice you, you quickly walked out of the classroom. While walking on the sidewalk an idea popped into your head and it involved the one and only Dean Winchester. Seems as you can’t get rid of him yet.

 

 

“Y/N? Are you okay?” You looked up from your book you were reading in the library. You saw Lizzy and Jenna walking towards you. It was the first time you had seen both of them, as you were trying to avoid both them. It just didn’t feel right being with them.

“I’m fine.” You said a little too sharply. “How was the party?”

“Oh, it was great! Someone jumped off the roof and into the pool and then the cops showed up! Where were you, when did you leave?” Jenna spoke quickly.

“I- uh wasn’t feeling well. So I just walked home, I didn’t want to make you guys leave.” You said, avoiding their eyes.  

“Y/N are you sure you’re okay?” Lizzy continued to push, worry coming across her face.

“I said I was fine!” you snapped surprising the girls and even yourself.

“Y/N what’s going on, come on, talk to us.” Jenna pleaded.

“Just let it go, my goodness!” you grabbed your books and bag and rushed out of the library. You were boiling, this whole DUFF thing was really getting to you. It wasn’t your friends' fault; you just couldn’t help to take it out on them.

 

Two hours later and you couldn’t believe who you were standing next to.

“So you want me to de-DUFF you? Make you more attractable? Why me?” Dean raised his eyebrows questioning you.

“Because you were the only asshole to tell me about the whole DUFF thing. You’re an asshole, but an honest asshole. I need that. So will you teach me how to be more, uh likable.” You gave him puppy eyes. “You see I like this guy, Gabriel, and I want him to notice me.” Dean looked down at you as he caught a football. He was sweating and you could see his bright green eyes with the sun shining on them.

“And what’s in it for me?” He asked.

“I heard you were failing psychology. Dean that’s my best class! I could tutor you and give you my notes. With my help, you’ll get a B in no time and you’ll be right back on the field playing football.” You gave him a grin hoping he will agree.

“You make it sound so easy. For you yeah it might be easy to teach me, you’re a genius. But I have real work to do with you.” He through the football back, his biceps flexing in the process. You punched him in the arm knowing that he was only joking.

“Not funny Winchester.”

“What, I thought it was.” He winked at you. “Fine, I’ll do it!”

“Great!” you felt a wave of relief, you really didn’t know if your plan would work.

“But,” and you felt your stomach drop. “You have to give me a hug.”  
  
“Right now?” you asked hoping to God that he didn’t mean it.

“Oh yeah, while I’m nice a sweaty.” The blond man grinned at you. “Do for old time’s sake Y/N.”

“No way Dean!”

“Fine then you can kiss Gabriel goodbye, but oh wait, you wouldn’t kiss h-”

“Okay, I’ll hug you! Gosh, you’re so immature Winchester you know?” you ridiculed.

“Ah but you love me Y/N. Now come here!” He wrapped his arms around you.

“Ew, you smell Dean!” But he just laughed at you, and eventually you joined him.

“Just like in the backyard, remember?” he asked.

“Yeah, whatever.” You responded. You peeled yourself away from his wide frame.

“Okay so let’s wake up around nine, have breakfast and go to the mall together. It will be our first lesson.” Dean suggested.

“Sounds good. See then neighbor.” You waved to him.

“Alright awesome.” He grinned back.

This was a terrible idea you thought to yourself as you walked off of campus. But maybe Dean can get you Gabe, and who knows? It might even be kind of fun, right?


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The reader and Dean get some practice.

 

_Arggghhhhh! How could you have let this happen?! This is so embarrassing; I’ll never be able to face him again! Stupid, stupid! You mentally hit yourself. Now our whole plan is all screwed up because I had to be so stupid! He will never look at me the same! And what I did… no! You replayed the whole day over in your head, hoping there was anything you could fix._

 

8 hours Earlier

 

The sunlight shone through your window, waking you up. Looking at your clock you read that it said 8:30, Dean would be at your door in thirty minutes. But you were so comfy and didn’t feel like getting out of bed, knowing that when you pulled up the covers your body would be a frozen popsicle. After a few minutes of just mindlessly staring you gave yourself the push you needed to start your day.

    Walking to your bathroom, you stripped yourself of your pajamas and hopped in the shower. The water was nice and warm. After your shower, you brushed your teeth and dried your hair. Back in your room, you put on some of your casual clothes, a black camisole with a blue and black flannel and jean shorts. As you were walking down the darkly lit hallway to your kitchen you heard a light knock at your door. Grabbing your purse, you opened the door to find Dean standing there leaning against the entrance.

“Ready to go sweetheart?” he asked, his voice still a little rough from sleeping.

“Yup.” You replied, popping the ‘p’.

You both walked out of your building and to back parking lot. It was a nice sunny day and the air was cool enough so that you weren’t sweating like a dog.

    When you arrived at the Impala, or otherwise known as Dean’s baby, he opened the passenger’s side door for you giving you a grin and you returned it with raising one eyebrow, but got in without any questions. You have been in this car many of times, mostly when you both were younger and it had still belonged to his father. But when you both went away to college John decided to give the car to Dean.

    You looked around the familiar car, knowing exactly where each wear and tear would be. You ran your hands over the leather set, missing the feeling.  As Dean got into the car he turned on the music and a familiar tune reached your ears.

“Dean...” you said hesitating for a moment, almost afraid that you were about to say might scare him off, “you still listen to classic rock?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I Y/N?”

“Well it’s just that you know, you’ve changed. You’re a jock and um-not really like you were when we were younger.”

But instead of responding to you, he just chuckled. He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something but decided to close his mouth, whatever he was going to say, lost.

When you walked into the café, you received a warm greeting from the barista and found a small round table to have your breakfast. You ordered eggs and coffee along with a fresh bowl of fruit.

“Okay down to business.” Dean side while rubbing his hands together. “First things first, how are your social skills?”

“I would say about a four, no make it a six, fuck like I know Dean! I never rated myself on social skills!” you said sarcastically.

“Calm down, that’s fine. Let’s just go for a test run.” He responded, turning his gaze around the café.

“A what? Look I don’t think that this is the best place to be-” but before you could finish your sentence the waiter came with your food.

You both immediately dug in and you almost moaned at the warm deliciousness that was entering your stomach.

“That one.” Is all that Dean said to you as he pointed to a kid with dark curly brown hair over in the back corner, next to a window. He was sitting by himself, reading a book. Okay good sign, maybe this could work.

“What do I do?” you asked feeling a nervous flutter in your stomach. The thought of trying to hold a conversation with a random stranger did not sit well with your insides.

“Just go over there, sit down, ask him some questions. But play it cool, don’t be creepy about it. And whatever you do, don’t mention race, sexuality, politics, and/or religion. Your ultimate goal is to get his number.”

“Right,” you said standing up from the table. “No race, sexuality, politics, and/or god.”

“Religion.” Dean corrected you. He gave you a quick wink before looking back down at his phone. _Okay, you thought to yourself, you can do this! You are Y/N! You are a master boss! Bad ass boss! Never mind that just sounded weird. Just get his number._

You walked over with some-what of an awkward stride. When you reached the table, you were a sweaty mess. Nope, you thought, no, no, no, can’t do this. Fuck it! Abort mission, abort mission! You quickly turned back on your heels and locked eyes with Dean. He was giving you a stern look, as if his eyes were saying ‘get your ass back over there’. Heaving a sigh, you turned back and approached the table.

“Um… excuse me. Hi!” you said with a small wave. The guy looked up from his book to you and you noticed he had nice chocolate brown eyes. They were so beautiful you could just look at them all day, but then you realized that you had been just looking at him for a while without saying anything. Dumbass, you mentally kicked yourself.

“Hi, sorry. I just couldn’t but noticed you reading…” you looked sideways to see the title of his novel. “Oh my goodness your reading _Y/F/B_! That’s my favorite book!” His face immediately broke into a smile.

“No way! This is my second time reading it! It’s also mine” the stranger exclaimed.

“Ha! I’ve read it three!” you smiled at him, so relieved to find some common ground. He gestured towards the seat across from him for you sit. You took the seat and you both began to converse on your favorite parts of the book. The conversation flowed naturally and all of your worried tension melted away. Dean chose perfectly. Speaking of…

You looked over at Dean to see him staring at you and the boy’s name you learned was Alex. He had a strange expression upon his face, something you couldn’t read. It made you curious but you decided to ignore it and turn back to your new friend.

By the end of your delightful conversion with the stranger who now is a friend, you received his number. But it wasn’t as you thought it would be.

When returned to Dean, you had a wide grin on your face.

“I got it! Thanks for such a great pick Dean!” you place the napkin with the phone number in front him.

“Awesome!” he smiled up at you, sharing in your joy. “So are you going to go on a date with him?”

“Yeah about that, well the topic of sexuality did come up at some point and he actually prefers the company of men in his bed.” You giggled at Dean’s surprise. “It’s okay though, I just gained a great new friend who can dork out with me.”

“Oh great, see this is why you are a DUFF Y/L. You were supposed to ended up making out, not dorking out.” He chuckled at your innocent expression. “But you did manage to talk to a guy without screwing it up so I’ll take that as a win. Come on, let’s get out of here.” He placed cash on the table and you two walked out of Polly’s.

 

“So where do we start?” you asked, turning to look at Dean.

“First off, your clothes.” He stated.

“My clothes? What’s wrong with my clothes?”

“Well, nothing if it were up to me,” he said while rubbing the back of his neck while looking down. “it’s just that…”

“Spit it out Winchester.” You demanded.

“You look like a hobo nerd.” He quickly put his hands up in front of his face.

“Did you think I was going to hit you Dean?” you inquired with a hint of a laugh in your voice. He turned his green eyes towards yours and slowly lowered his hands. A small smile crept on his face after hearing the lightness to your voice.

“Maybe.” He said grinning.

“Dean, I’m not mad. You were just being honest. If I want to go on a date with Gabe, I need to look the part.” You said, hating even the thought of wearing something you weren’t comfortable in. But sometimes you gotta do what yeah gotta do.

“Wow, you can be a really chill person when you want to be.”

“Shut up Dean.”

You both walked into the store and if you had to be honest with yourself, it looked a little pricey. It wasn’t like you were poor or anything, your job at the bar paid well enough, it was just that you didn’t like to spend your money on expensive clothes. You’d rather spend it on more important things to you.

“Okay game plan: we each pick out a few clothes for you to try on. We want to find your style, something that pops “Y/N”. Something that says ‘I’m awesome.’”

“Really Dean? I’m awesome.” You raised your eyebrow and put a hand on your hip.

“Look, you need to show the world who you are, and truth is I don’t know who you are. You need to start dressing more like you and less like Wreck-it Ralph.”

You rolled your eyes, “Fine, whatever.” You huffed.

“Now hop to it sweetheart. And, uh try on a new attitude along with the clothes.” He winked at you and turned in the opposite direction, already picking out a rack of clothing to look through.

You turned around and started glancing around. The store was a pearl white, all of the clothes hanging on silver racks. Taking a look at the first mannequin you passed by, you looked at the price tag. You weren’t interested in the outfit at all, but you wanted to see what kind of prices you were dealing with. _Holy noodles!_ You thought to yourself, _this is totally out of my price range_. But you just shrugged your shoulders, knowing that you will be able to get extra shifts to make up for it.

Digging through the racks of clothes, you felt the material of some of the clothes you might be interested in, hoping that they would at least feel comfortable on.

You strolled back to the dressing rooms to find Dean waiting there for you.

“Here you go.” He laid the pile of clothes on top of the ones you were already carrying. Turning around toward the dressing room, you opened the curtain, the only thing separating the small room from the store.

You looked around, found two hooks for your clothes, and hung them there. The room was just like the store with white walls, an elongated mirror, and a small cushioned stool that did not even look comfortable to sit on.

You took a look at some of the clothes Dean picked out. Taking you by surprise, you found that you actually like the style of most of them and the fact that they actually fit you.

Putting on the first outfit- which were dark skinny jeans and a long-sleeved shirt with black and white stripes- you heard Dean yell from outside.

“Show me what you put on sweetheart.” You walked out with the outfit on in your bare feet.

“Now that looks awesome!” he smiled.

“Yeah it’s a nice casual look” you commented.

“Alright next one Y/L.”

You walked back inside and continued the same routine, trying on casual clothes and showed them to Dean, and you both decided whether to keep or toss. But then you came back to the next outfit the you _knew_ Dean chose because you would have never chosen this for yourself.

“Dean! What the hell is this?!” you screamed to him. You heard a chuckle come from the other side.

“Just try it on. I think it would really complement your boobs!”

“Winchester! You’re disgusting!” you mumbled to yourself about how stupid this was and you couldn’t believe you were going to wear it, let alone let Dean of all people see you in it. Pulling the zipper up from behind you took a deep breath and walked out to show Dean.

“Wow,” he breathed out. His eyes were wide and the grin from his face fell, his mouth hanging open. The way he was looking at you made you blush and look away.

You glanced down at your dress, a skin tight short red dress with a sweetheart neckline and the straps crossing over your chest. It was beautiful you had to admit and it fit, but it was very uncomfortable and you felt like it was ridding up your butt. Just something that you normally wouldn’t wear.

“You like what you see.” You said to Dean, surprising yourself. He chuckled a little.

“You look nice Y/N. Something you might wear on a date with Gabe perhaps?” he asked you slowly dragging his eyes up from your body to meet yours.

“Yeah if I could get one with him. I can barely even talk to him without getting nervous and stupid.”

“Well here let’s practice.” He said as if it was a normal situation.

“Right here, now?” you inquired.

“Yeah sure why not?”

“Okay whatever you say.” You felt a little nervous, although you had no clue why. Maybe it was because just the thought of being on a date with the guy you were crushing on made you like a crazy teen girl.

“Now let’s pretend we’re in a booth.” He started setting the scene. “Come sit down on this couch next to me as sexy as you possibly can. Then whisper something in my ear.”

You gave him a questioning look, but just shrugged your shoulders and went along with it. You tried to sway your hips as you walked but it just turned out to look like a penguin doing an awkward waddle. Then Dean started laughing at you, and tried as hard as you could to keep a straight face and not laugh. You took a seat next to him and put your hand on his chest. _Be sexy_ , you thought.

“Hey there,” you whispered into his ear, heat rising up in your chest. “I couldn’t help but notice you all alone over here and well, um... you’re a guy… I’m a girl…” And that was when Dean busted out laughing. The thing about Dean was that he had this way, that whenever he was happy, you were happy. And his laugh was just so damn contagious that you as well stated to laugh, knowing that what you had just said was ridiculous and definitely not sexy at all.

You laid your head on his shoulder, both of you still laughing and once you caught your breath, you sat up from your previous position. And shockingly you missed his warmth, but you just shook your head, snapping out of it.

“Okay, that was a nice try, but I’m going to get changed and then we can get these clothes and leave, yeah?” you asked turning to face him. He didn’t respond, looking at you but not really present. “Dean?”

“Uh, yeah that sounds good.” He quickly said looking away.

You stood up and walked back to the changing room. But what both of you missed was one of Amy’s friends, standing behind a section of clothes, recording the whole entire thing.

 

 

Later that night as you were warming up your dinner in your microwave, you heard knocking at your door.

“Y/N! Y/N are you here?” a voice came from the other side of the door.

When you opened up the door, you saw your two best friends on the other side. All of your guilt- from what you had said to them the other day- rising up.

“Hey guys, what are you doing here?” you asked. They both gave you a shocked look.

“You haven’t seen in Y/N?” Lizzy questioned you.

“Seen what?” you asked, your curiosity peeking out. Jenna turned to Lizzy with wide eyes. 

“Maybe we shouldn’t show her, what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”

“No,” Lizzy replied, “she deserves to see it. It’s better that we show her than some stupid, drunk student.”

“Guys, I’m standing right here.” You stated, “Just come inside and show me whatever this is.” You started to feel some nervousness in your stomach.

“Can we use your computer?” Lizzy asked, gesturing towards your tablet. You nodded your head and walked over to your kitchen table with other two.

She pulled up YouTube, and searched for a video. It started and your stomach immediately dropped.

It was in the store that you and Dean were shopping in. You were in the red dress and walking over to Dean. _How did they get this?_ There were words appearing across the screen consisting of DUFF, slut, whore, etc. Then it was showing you when you met Alex, and then all of the other random strangers Dean made you speak to. Finally, it was a clip of you looking through a rack of clothing and muttering to yourself about Gabe and everything you wanted to do with him. You looked down at title of the video to see that it was named “The Slut Duff”. You saw that it almost 2,000 views!

You felt tears rising to your eyes and you dropped down into your seat. You just couldn’t believe this.

“Y/N I’m so sorry.” Jenna said rubbing your arms.

“Who did this?” You asked and still trying to process what was caught on camera.

“The account that posted it is Amy’s.” Lizzy answered. You laughed out loud.

“Of course, that little bitch just couldn’t handle that I had the attention of her ken doll!” You got up and paced in front of the girls. You ran your hands through your hair when a terrible thought popped into your head.

“Oh shit, no, no, no, no.” You started to panic.

“Y/N, what is it?”

“There is no way that Gabe hasn’t seen this?!” You started to pull on your hair, not being able to bear the just the thought of it. “The things I said, those were meant for just me! He was never supposed to know that! Oh god…” you walked over to the walk and started to hit your head on it.

“Hey Y/N, I can manage to take this down, just give me a minute to hack into it.” Jenna said you.

“Y/N, sweetie, stop that.” Lizzy walked over to where you were abusing yourself and the wall. She grabbed you by the shoulders and pulled you into a hug. “Y/N, honey, just know that we never thought of you as our DUFF. You are our best friend. We love you.”

“Ha! Got it! Nothing can stop me.” Jenna exclaimed. Then realizing what was going on, she stopped her cheering and came over to join your hug. “Lizzy’s right Y/N. I could not imagine life without you. And if Gabe doesn’t like you for who you are then he doesn’t deserve you. And as for Amy, well she is just an A class bitch who is jealous of anyone who gets a second glance by any guy.” That made you giggle a little because it was true.

“Thank you guys for showing me and being here for me.” You whispered.

“Of course, do you want us to stay; have a girls and ice cream maybe?” Lizzy offered.

“Nothing would make me happier!” you said. _How could you ever try to be mad at your best friends?_

You just hoped this didn’t change things with Dean and that Gabe would even look at you.


	3. Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: The reader and Dean are neighbors in college. The reader learns about the new social status called the DUFF. The reader is desperate a looks for help. Dean helps her reinvent herself while she tutors Dean. But she didn’t expect to fall for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry it’s been so long. Also, know that this story is loosely based on the movie, I have changed things to fit my version of the story.

               Not even five minutes into walking in the campus café, you felt the heat of everyone’s gaze on you. It felt like holes were burning through your skin, and you didn’t know how to act. Keeping your head down, you walked over to one of the vendors and waited in line. When you approached the counter, you ordered an Italian sub with some chips and a water.

               As you walked through the large room, looking for a table you saw Dean and some of his football friends. They were laughing and talking about something. Dean had not seen you yet, and as you were about to walk past his table, you noticed they were watching the one video on this planet that has made you question if the concept of technology is really worth it.

As you got closer you heard one of his buddies say, “Aw dude, she has a nice ass, but are you sure want to hang with her. She seems kind of like a crazy bird.”

Dean somewhat chuckled to himself, “Man, you don’t even know the half of it.”

You stopped in your tracks and sucked a breath. You couldn’t believe this! _What a douche bag!_ You thought. After everything that you two have been through, growing up together as best friends. You two spent all yesterday together, and you thought you had a great time, that he was actually cool when he wasn’t surrounded by jocks. But you could have never been more wrong.

You stormed past Dean’s table and purposefully shoving him while passing. He looked up and watched you pass by and a realization hit him; you had heard what he said. You felt him quickly grab your arm. You spun around, struggling to hold your meal in your hands.

“Y/N, wait,” Dean said.

“Wait for what Dean?!” you shoved him off of you.

“I can explain.” He said, panic appearing on the surface of his eyes.

“Okay, then Dean. Explain. How do you still have that video?” You spit, crossing your arms over your chest.

“Well, Chris over there just got it from Amy and saved it. He was just showing some people.” He responded rubbing the back of his neck. You remember from your younger days that rubbing his neck was a nervous tick.

“And what do you have to say about it?” you said, afraid of what he might say.

 The man looked back at his friends who were all sitting on the edge of their seats with smirks on their faces. Those idiots just couldn’t get enough!

Dean turned back to you and shrugged his shoulders. When he spoke, he sounded unsure of himself. “Uhh… nice ass?”

You gave him a blank stare. “Go to hell Winchester. You can fail psych for all I care.” And with that, you turned around and exited the building. You felt tears coming but you kept them in. He was not worth your tears.

 

After you ate lunch in a park, you went your last class of the day. Which, unfortunately for you was psychology.

You could not believe what Dean had said to you. You trusted him and now he stabbed you in the back. Just to make himself look better. _Was it even all worth it? Maybe you were better off not being with Gabe._

You two used to be _best_ friends! How could he do that to you?! After everything, the both of you have been through! The betrayal really hurt and all you wanted to do was crawl into bed and eat chicken nuggets. _Get your shit together Y/N,_ you thought. _Do not let some pansy in a football jersey and a diva in a skirt bring you down. Don’t let a stupid video be the reason you fail college and become antisocial._

When you entered the auditorium, you headed towards your normal seat. However, when you got there, Dean – _the sneaky son of a bitch_ \- was already waiting for you there. You turned around and walked down another row. Unfortunately, that just made Dean climb over the top of a seat to be directly behind you.

“Y/N.” he whispered. “Psst, Y/N!”

“Hello class,” your professor walked in at the perfect time. The professor started to ramble on about your next chapter then what the next week would look like.

All of a sudden, you felt something hit the back of your neck. You just ignored it, turned your attention back to your teacher, and proceeded to take notes. A few seconds later, you felt the same thing. _What the hell?!_

You turned your head around to catch Dean in mid-throw. The man was throwing paper wads at you!

“Stop it.” You mouthed to him.

“What?” he mouthed back with an innocent look. You flipped him off and turned back around. You could not think about Dean right now, just the thought of him made you want to punch a wall.

The class dragged on and every second felt like a year. The entire time you could feel Dean’s eyes burning holes in the back of your head. You just wanted to get out! Therefore, when the professor dismissed your class, you bolted out of there. When you heard Dean yelling your name, you picked up the pace. You could hear him coming closer. All you wanted was to be alone. You did not want to hear his sorry-ass excuses.

Making a quick decision, you turned a corner, hoping he would miss it and just pass by. Fortunately, for you, he did just that. He kept running and calling your name. _How can he be such a good quarterback but yet miss you turn that corner? Oh-well, thank goodness for me._ You thought.

“Hum-hmm.” You heard someone cough behind you. You turned around to find Gabe sitting on a picnic with a book in his lap.

“Oh, Gabe! S-sorry. I didn’t see you there.” You stuttered. Realization hitting you like a ton of bricks. _Shit! Now I run into Gabe! After this video came out!_ You felt a blush rising to your cheeks.

“Running away from an ex?” he asked.

You chuckled at the thought. “Uh, no. Not a chance in hell. Just some ass-butt.” At the insult, he gave you a strange look. _Nice you idiot, ass-butt? He probably thinks you were dropped as a child. This is Gabe you’re talking to for crying-out-loud._

Then it hit you like a giant bus. You were talking to Gabriel Evans! _The_ Gabe! And there was just a video put out there about your undying love for him! Oh no…

“Umm… Gabe. About that video-”

He cut you off before you could finish. “Right that.”

“I swear Gabe I had no idea about that.” You swallowed and looked down at your shoes. “I was just talking to myself.” _God! Please don’t hate me, Gabe, please don’t!_

“No, it’s cool.” He said. You snapped your eyes up to his.

“Really?” you asked. _Well, this was unexpected._

“Yeah,” he responded. He stood up and slid his hands into his pockets. “Do you really think I’m hot?” He asked you. You blushed yet again.

“Uhh…”

“Y/N, I’m just kidding.”

“You know my name?” You asked with surprise.

“Of course, we have communications together. And you are friends with Lizzy and Jenna.”

“Oh right.” You said, your voice deflating a little.

“Look,” he started. “I know we haven’t really hung out before, but how would you like if we did Saturday night? Say 7? Meet me at my apartment. I understand if you don’t want to.” He asked. He looked a little passive as if he was calculating your every move.

“Are you kidding?! Yeah, that sounds great!” you quickly answered. You couldn’t believe this was actually happening! He smiled at you and turned around. He ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook and wrote on it. He then handed the slip to you.

“Here is my number and address. Text me later okay?”

“Yeah, no problem. See you then sailor.” You saluted.

“Right… see you then.” He picked up his stuff and walked away. You mentally hit yourself. _Sailor? What were you thinking? But it doesn’t matter. You just got a date with Gabe! Hu-rah!_ Making sure no one was around; you quickly did a little dance. You felt like you were on top of the world. And you forgot about every bad thing that had happened to you.

 

_Meanwhile- Dean’s POV_

The professor could not talk any slower. _Auggghhhhh, just kill me now!_ Dean thought to himself. He looked down at Y/N sitting in front of him. She had just flipped him off and he thought it would be best to leave her be until class ended.

He really messed up this time. He didn’t know what he was doing and he made a mistake. She has to know this. He just got her back and he didn’t want to lose her again. He had to make her understand. Over the course of the past two days, he forgot how much he missed her company. She gets him, unlike anyone else.

Suddenly the teacher was telling everyone to have a good rest of his or her day and Dean knew that now was the time to go get her. Unfortunately, in a blink of an eye, she was gone and out the door. He ran after to trying to catch up.

“Y/N!” he shouted trying to get her attention. “Excuse me.” He said shoving some people the side. He _needed_ to get to her. Explain to her what had happened. That he was just being an idiot, a stupid, stupid idiot under the pressure of his douche bag friends. He had such a wonderful time with her yesterday; it has been so long since he could just be himself. That time with her felt like when they were younger and life was not so complicated. He was really starting to see her as a great friend, someone he could just hang out with and not have to worry about complicated things. Everything was just as it was, and she was so down-to-earth and not complicated.

“Oh, hey Dean!” Amy just “accidently” bumped into him.

“Not now Amy.” Dean curtly dismissed her.

“Oh come on Dean-ie. Don’t you miss us?” She threw herself on him dramatically.

He rolled his eyes. “No. Not really. You’re too confusing. Now go find another Ken doll to play with.” He removed her arms from around him and quickly ran away to find Y/N.

As he was running, he realized he lost her. Amy distracted him from her sight. _Great!_ He thought to himself. _I lost her, just fan-freakin-tastic!_

He continued running in the same direction yelling your name.

Dean ran for about another fifteen minutes, looking for you until he gave up. He stopped and sat down on a bench sighing to himself. _What have I done? I’m such a moron for hurting a friend like that._ _I would hate me if I were her!_ He rubbed his eyes in frustration. Looking up, he saw a familiar face walking by. _Chris?_ All of a sudden, an idea popped into his head.

_Y/N POV_

As you walked up the steps to your apartment, you were digging in your bag for your keys. Approaching your door, you looked up. Well, this is interesting and annoying, but mostly interesting.

“Dean? What are you doing here?” You asked. He was sitting in front of your door with his arms draped over each leg. He snapped his head up to look at you. There was a pleading look in his eyes as he jumped up. Now you had to look up to make eye contact with him.

“Y/N, listen to me. You have to believe me. I swear, I was such a stupid idiot, I had no idea what was going through my brain back there. I understand why you hate me. I just want you to know that I had an amazing time with you yesterday. I don’t know about you but to me, it felt like back home.” He sighed.

You gave him a questioning look, deciding whether to believe and forgive him or not. You looked down and his hands came into your view. You saw that his knuckles were purple and blue. Quickly forgetting about your current problem you grabbed his hands.

“Dean, what happened? Are okay?” You stressed. He looked down and chuckled.

“Oh that. Ha, you should see the other guy!”

“Dean I’m serious, what happened?” He smirked at you, remembering what had happened.

_Flashback Dean’s POV_

“Do you still have it?!” Dean yelled at Chris, grabbing him by the shirt and throwing him up against the wall.

“Hey! Dean what a-are you t-talking about?!” Chris screeched back.

“I’m talking about the damn video of Y/N!” he roared. “Delete it and tell everyone you know to delete it.” He threw the man down. Turning back to him, Dean threw a punch at Chris’s face.

“And tell them to forget it!” he said one last time and ran away.

 

_Flashback End_

 

“Look Y/N,” he gently pushed your hands away from his knuckles. “I took care of Amy’s video… and Chris.”

You looked up at him. You just realized his eyes were so beautiful and green. His freckles look like they were carefully placed, just so they would make him look better. _Wait, what?_ You shook your head.

Unlocking your door you asked, “Hey Dean, you want to come inside?” you gave him a small smile.

He nodded his head, “Yeah, I’d like that.”

You walked inside, turned on the lights, and threw your bag and keys on the kitchen table. You walked over to your freezer and pulled out frozen peas. You turned around to find Dean next to you. You gave him the peas for his bruised knuckles.

“Hey, Dean.” You said.

“Yeah?” he looked up at you and out of nowhere, you threw a punch at his face.

 _Son of a bitch that hurt but it felt so good!_ You thought while shaking your hand.

“Dude, what the hell?” Dean asked, holding his cheek.

“Now I forgive you.” You stated. He rolled his eyes.

“Fair enough.” Now he handed you the peas.  You both looked at each other and chuckled. You turned back to the fridge and pulled out two beers.

“Here.” You said, handing him the beer.

“Thanks.” He grinned taking the drink. He followed you out to the terrace where he sat next to you on the bench. He laid his arm on the back of the bench.

You both looked out over the small town. It was a quiet night with a slight breeze. There were just enough lights in the town so you could see the street ahead, but not enough to cover the beautiful night sky with its thousands of diamonds.

“Why did we stop hanging out Y/N? What happened to us?” Dean asks out of nowhere. You turn your face to look at him and see that he is already looking at you. His eyes are piercing yours, daring you to be honest but begging for mercy at the same time.

You took a moment to think over this. You really don’t remember. You both moved to college together, ended up having dorms by each other the first year, then when you wanted an apartment, you worked out that you would be neighbors (with the help of your parents of course). At first you both each took time out of your busy lives for each other. However, as time went on, Dean’s football started to get very serious and your classes were taking up most of your time. You got a job that made you work most nights. You two walked in different circles, so you met different people. You met Jenna and Lizzy through classes and your volunteer work and Dean started spending more time with his football team and the girls that followed them. You just sort of slowly parted until one day your relationship with him was nonexistent.

“Dean do we need to talk ab-” but he cut you off before you could finish what you were saying.

“Y/N we used to be best friends! We told each other everything! Everything!” you didn’t miss him grab your hand. You didn’t mind though, his hand was really warm and you were feeling a little chilly. He continued, “You remember when I told you about my first kiss!” he exclaimed.

You began laughing at the memory of this. When you both were fourteen, Dean took Carrie Gates on a date ice-skating. When he tried to kiss her for the first time, he accidentally bumped his head against hers. Which, isn’t really bad; in fact, she found it cute. So when he went in for a second time, he lost his balance and fell down. Unfortunately for him, he was still holding on to her hand when he went down, so she fell with him. Carrie ended up falling face first and hit her mouth on the ice.  Her mouth was a bloody mess and she ended up having to get two stitches and was missing a front tooth. Poor Dean was then girlfriendless and all of his fourteen-year-old street cred was lost.

You chuckled again and enjoyed the moment of both of you laughing together. His laugh was deep and soothing, something you desperately missed.

“I really don’t know what happened to us, Dean.” You said, your voice turning more melancholy. “We just grew apart, we live completely different lives. I wish we didn’t though.” You confessed. You looked at the Winchester. He turned his eyes from the sky to you and gave you a solemn grin. He knew how you felt.

“I know, me too kiddo.” He agrees as he wraps one arm around your shoulders.

Why did this feel so right? The smell of beer, the outdoors, and Dean all mixed together gave you a warm and settling feeling. Everything in that moment felt calming and at peace. Not a single thing could ruin this perfect moment. You had your best friend back and all was right with the world.

You rested your head on his shoulder and scooted closer to him for warmth. You two sat like that the rest of the night while you retold childhood stories and laughed over old memories.

 

The next morning you woke up with the sun shining through your window. Looking at your clock, you had seen that it was seven am. You decided to get up and get ready for the day ahead of you.

Feeling a bit lousy, you decided to go on a run. Even though you hated them, you knew you would feel better in the end.

It turned out to be a beautiful morning and you were feeling great. On your way back you passed Polly’s coffee shop and decided to grab yourself a coffee.

As you were waiting for your order, you notice a flyer on their bulletin board. It read:  _Gale’s Annual Spring Festival_.

Yes! You remembered this and you were excited to see it. Every year you volunteered at their drink station. You loved the people you had the opportunity to meet and all the stories you’d hear. People were always happy and nights were fun. You would find time to buy at least one funnel cake and on the last night Jenna, Lizzy, and you would ride the Ferris wheel.

Looking at the flyer, you noticed that they were adding something new, on the last night; they would hold a charity ball for a children’s hospital. _How sweet_ , you thought. You took a picture of the flyer and suddenly your coffee was ready.

When you entered your apartment you quickly showered and changed. ~~~~

Feeling a bit lonely, you texted Jenna and Lizzy asking them if they wanted to meet at Polly’s for lunch. And since today was Friday, you wouldn’t have any classes today.

Immediately you got back two yes’s both agreeing to meet around noon, which gave you an hour to work on some homework. However, it wasn’t the easiest to get much done. Your mind was somewhere else completely.

You kept replying last night in your mind. Just you and Dean bonding over something things that nobody else could understand about you. Even though he really hurt you yesterday, you realized that he truly felt bad about it. He even went through all of the trouble to beat up his friend just to get the video down. There is no denying that he really was sorry. Suddenly you wanted to be near Dean and laugh with him again. _Ugh! No Y/N! You need to work on this essay so you don’t have to worry about it this weekend! Shit, this weekend! I have my date with Gabe!_

You had been so caught up in the moment with Dean last night that you forgot to tell him about your date with Gabe. You couldn’t believe you forgot about that! You were _so_ not prepared for this date and needed help. It’s a good thing you were meeting Jenna and Lizzy for lunch so they can give you tips. 

You also needed something to wear… you’ll worry about that later.

 

 

“That’s awesome Y/N! I’m so happy for you!” Lizzy exclaimed. The three of you were sitting at a small booth by the window; your lemonade and sandwich were coming soon. As you were waiting for the food and drinks, you gave the girls the run-down of yesterday’s events.

“Yeah N/N, that’s fantastic!” Jenna congratulated you. “So what are you going to wear?”

“Yeah, I’m not so sure about that…” you passively commented.

“Where are you both going?”

“Another thing I’m not sure about…” you began to feel a little queasy.

“Y/N do you think you guys will become an item?”

“What?” you squeaked out in confusion. Too many questions were being thrown at you and you held none of the answers.  It was too overwhelming. So you did the only thing you knew how to do, you ran.

Grabbing your bag, you sprinted out of the front doors of the café and ran. You had no idea where you were going, but only let your feet take you there. You kept going until your legs and lungs gave out. When you stopped, you finally looked around at your surroundings. Somehow, you ran right to the football-training center. Either it was fate or something deep in your psyche wanted you to go there. And it just happened to around one o’clock on a Friday afternoon, meaning Dean would be just finishing his one practice of the week. He would be in the locker room right about now.

 _Don’t do it Y/N_ , you thought to yourself. _But he needs to know!_ You argued back to yourself. _But what if he is upset that you’re going out?_ You retorted. _Why would he be upset? And why would you even care? You need his advice on this date! It will be a disaster without his help!_   Deciding that you really did need his help and that arguing with yourself was quite ridiculous, you went inside with a bit more confidence.

Arriving in the men’s locker room, you heard some men yelling at you, others whistling. You saw many of the guys looking you up and down. _Ew, grow up,_ you thought.

“Y/N?” you heard someone call your name. You turned your head to see Chris. “Woah, Y/N! What the hell is this?” he protested. While saying it though, his handed gestured towards the southern region of his body _. Perfect_ , you thought, _time for revenge._

“Hmm, looks like a penis, only smaller.” All the guys around him started cracking up at your quick comment. You walked away with a resting smirk.

You were so relieved to find Dean around the next corner.

“Ah, finally!” you breathed out when you walked up to him. He gave you a questioning look and a hit of this girl is crazy.

“Y/N? What are you doing in here? Is everything okay?” he asked.

“Yes, well not exactly.” You answered while pacing.

“Okay calm down, tell me.”

“Well…” you turned back to him but found that he had taken off his practice jersey and was now shirtless. Moreover, very toned in the chest area. _Very_.

“Y/N, what is it?”

“Could… could you please put a shirt on!” you exclaimed.  He raised an eyebrow at you and a smirk started to rise on his face.

“What, you don’t like this” he chuckled.

“No, not particularly.” You professed.

“Oh come on, what about this…” he led on, then started to pump is pecs. They were oddly doing a little dance.

“Dean! Stop it!” you started to giggle much to your dismay. He began to laugh at your reaction. But he didn’t stop. Which only made you blush. “Dean come on, please, I have something serious to tell you!” you pleaded.

“Okay, okay fine I’ll stop.” He then put a black t-shirt on. “Alright Y/N, what is it?” He asked.

You took a deep breath, “Gabe asked me out!” you informed with excitement.

“Y/N that’s awesome!” He said without missing a beat.

“Yeah, but I need a game plan.” You replied, biting your lip.

Nodding his head he said, “Right, follow me.” then grabbed your arm. He led you to a room with benches and a whiteboard. This must be their planning room. He erased everything on the whiteboard and told you to sit. Taking a seat on one of the benches, you turned your attention to Dean writing on the board. On the board, he wrote _The Date_ , and then underlined it.

“Do you think football teams just go out on the field without a strategy?” he asked. Not really knowing the answer, you both nodded and shook your head. He frowned, “Of course not! You want this date to end with you guys making out?” he shrugs his shoulders, “You need to think ahead.”

“First things first. Where you and your date are going to for the evening.” Dean informed. “What kind of place are you thinking of?”

“Well, I was thinking someplace kind of trendy, kind of hipster, maybe unique?”

“Done. Dave and Busters.” He put out as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Huh?” you squinted at him, not really sure of this. “The place with the metal claw game?”

He nodded his head, “You bet your ass.”

He turned to draw two circles on the board. “This is you and Gabe.” Then he drew a couple of boxes,  
“Worse scenario is if you get seated at a table right across from each other. Okay, no one’s making out if their three feet apart from each other, simple geology.” You raised an eyebrow at him, but he just ignored it.

“You need a booth, okay? It’s better for flirting, not-so-accidental touching.” You rolled your eyes at that. “And making out. Game on!”

“Wow, I had no idea, guys, like you even thought about this stuff.” You pondered.

“Well,” he retorted, “that’s ‘cus you’re racist against jocks. You’re a jockist.”

Smiling at him you said, “Okay, moving on.”

“Okay, so how do you set the tone at for dinner? Lighting matters…okay, the darker the booth the better.”

“Lighting, dark booth, got it. What’s next?”

“Body language. Is he leaning in? Is he sitting close? And then it’s all about interaction. Is he trying to impress you? Does he say complimentary things to you? If yes, chances are, he is going to make his move. And TOUCH DOWN!” he finishes his drawing of the game plan on the board. _Oh my god_ , you thought, _he is an idiot._  

“Dean!” you scolded him. He somehow made the game plan drawing to turn out like a penis.

“What?” he replied, acting all innocent, “I’ve always wanted to do that to the coach’s board.” You just rolled your eyes at him.

“We gotta go,” he pulled you off the bench “let’s go.”

 

The following evening, you were groaning in frustration towards your closet. You had NOTHING to wear! It was useless! You would show up to your incredibly hot date and look like trash! You hoped Gabe liked people who look like they just went shopping through a box of t-shirts because that is all you have.

While you were digging through your desolate closet, you heard a knocking coming from your door. “It’s open!” you yelled, although then deciding that was probably not the best idea, you had no idea who it could be. But yet, you here a familiar voice echoing in your hallway.

“Sweetheart? Where are you?” Dean called out.

“In here, follow the sound of desperation.” You answered. Dean walked into your bedroom to find you sitting on the floor in front of your closet with clothes thrown all around you.

“What is this?” Dean asked, surprise written all over his face.

“I have nothing to wear.” You wined. Dean started to chuckle from behind you, which did not fit well with you. “It’s not funny Dean!”

“No it’s not, but you are.” He replied. “Come here.”

“I can’t, I am destined to die here, in the pile of my evil t-shirts. Of course, I had to be more of the tomboy. I couldn’t just occasionally purchase a dress! Tell Gabe we had a good going, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Go, leave me to decay and the bir-” but you couldn’t finish your sentence because the man cuts you off.

“My goodness (Y/N)! Stop being a drama queen and get your ass over here.” Dean demanded.

“Okay Mr. Fussy pants, I’m coming.” You got up from where you were sitting. You turned around to face him.

“Let’s go, sweetheart, follow me.”

“But why?”

“Don’t ask, just follow.” Not waiting for an answer, Dean turned and left the room, venturing off to somewhere else in your apartment. You huffed and rolled your eyes. You did not have time for Dean’s cryptic ways right now. You needed to figure out what you were wearing.

As you walked out of the room, you yelled to Dean, “You better make this quick, I have to be at Gabe’s in an hour.” 

“Y/N would you shut your cakehole!”

“Fine, but this better be worth the time.” You announced as you entered the kitchen. However, when you arrived in the kitchen you were surprised. There was a white box with a purple ribbon and bow around it, sitting on the table. “Winchester, what is this?” you questioned.

Dean rolled his eyes, “My goodness L/N, you don’t even know when someone is getting you a gift!”

“I realize that it is a gift you idjit! But _why_?!” you emphasized.

“Just open it! God, why do you have to be so stubborn and always question things?! Only you can turn a nice and thoughtful gift into a headache!”

You chuckled at that because you knew it was true. Taking a deep breath, you reached for the gift. You unwrapped the ribbon and bow, and then pulled off the lid of the box. You removed the white tissue paper from the top to see what was sitting at the very bottom. _Winchester!_ You thought to yourself, _You did not!_

“Dean!” You looked up at him with wide eyes and your mouth hanging open. He gave you a warm smile, and for some odd reason, your stomach was doing flips at the sight of his smile.

“I hope this solves your problem.” He said.

“But we decided not to get this. It is way too expensive!” you exclaimed. “Why on earth would buy this for me and how did you afford it?” you looked down inside the box and to see the red dress Dean made you try on at the mall. You had to admit, it did look good on you, but you both saw the price tag and you were not ready to spend that kind of cash on that dress. You just could not believe Dean did.

“You worked hard kid, and I think a girl deserves at least one night to feel beautiful.”  You looked up at him, warmth spreading through your whole body. How could you have ever let a guy like this slip away from you? How could you forget all the great things he had done for you in the past? This gift right here should not come as a surprise to you, and yet, it did. Not because he has changed since high school, but because you never expected any guy, no matter how kind, to pay for something so expensive and say those wonderful words. Add to the matter that you won’t even be dressing up for him, but another guy! And now you had something to wear! Superman just flew in again and saved the day!

Not knowing how to thank him properly, you just ran over to him and enveloped him in a big hug. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around you. It felt nice to feel his laughter and you just felt so safe.

He kissed the top of your head, “It’s no problem sweetheart.” He responded, knowing that your hug was your way of saying thank you. You sighed; you could stay in that position forever. _Y/N,_ you thought _, wake up! You have a date in less than an hour! Not with Dean but with Gabe!_   For some reason, the thought of that made you hold on tighter to Dean. Unfortunately, you came to your sense and knew that you eventually had to let go and get ready for your date.

Reluctantly, you let go of your friend and grabbed the dress off the table.

“I should probably go get ready.” You informed Dean while walking backward out of the kitchen.

He rubbed the back of his neck, “Yeah, you don’t want to be late.” He said, but his eyes never fully reached yours.

“Look, there is a beer in the fridge, I know it won’t make up for the dress, but it’s the least I can do.” You offered, to which he only responded with a smile.  

Twenty-five minutes later, you were ready to go. Your hair was curled and in a bun, your makeup was finished. You stuck with a natural glow for your makeup, only touching upon some things in a few areas, with the classic black eyeliner and mascara. The red dress still fit you well and you just happened to have a pair of Lizzy’s black heals left over from a time she stayed overnight. You were typically a modest person, but damn did you look good tonight! _No thanks to Dean,_ you reminded yourself. _Get Dean out of your head! Tonight is about Gabe!_    

You walked back out into the kitchen. Much to your delight, Dean was still there, sitting at the table cradling what looked to be his second bottle of beer. When the man heard you enter, he looked up to see you. Again, his reaction to you in the dress was one of wide eyes and slacked jaw. But this time you were dressed up all the way.

“Wow.” He breathed out. You looked down, a blush rising to your face. You heard the chair move against the floor so you returned your gaze to him. He was walking over to you.

“You stayed?” you meant for it to come out as a statement, but your mouth and mind never really worked well together so it sounded more like a question.

“Of course I stayed,” he confirmed as if it was a stupid question, “I wanted to see how my student turned out, and might I say, I did an awesome job.” He praised himself.

You rolled your eyes, “Yeah, yeah, you did a great job.”

“Y/N you look beautiful.” He said in a serious tone. Well, this was unexpected. You looked up into his eyes, _oh man, he shouldn’t have said that._

You smiled at him, thankful for all he has done for you. “Thank you, Dean, not just for the dress, but everything you’ve done.”

“This is all your doing sweetheart, I just gave you that little push.”

You sighed, not ready to go on this date. The nerves were finally hitting you and you realized you had no idea what you were getting yourself into with this date. You had no clue what you were doing.

“Umm… Dean… any last advice before I go?” you asked, a hint of desperation in your voice.

“Just be yourself.” He answered without hesitation.

“Right, be myself.” You repeated. “Okay, well I guess I should go then, don’t want to be late.” You grabbed your bag and headed for the door.

“Y/N” Dean called out.

“Yeah?” you turned around to him.

You saw him pause for a minute as if he was thinking about an impossible math equation. “Just… be safe and have fun.” He gave you a tight smile.

“Yeah, I will.” You turned and walked out of the apartment. _Oh_ , is all you could think at the moment as you headed for Gabe’s apartment.

As you left though, you missed Dean let his half smile fall and the longing look appear in his eyes as you walked away from him.


	4. Part 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thanks for being patient (I’m a huge procrastinator)! Also, thank you for your wonderful support and enthusiasm for this story!! Know that this story is loosely based on the movie, I have changed things to fit my version of the story.

_Okay be cool Colleen,_ you thought to yourself. You had arrived at the apartment that Gabe lived in, but you still had yet to actually knock on the door.

You couldn’t help it. You were so nervous. You’ve been dreaming of this moment, for longer than you wanted to admit. With it actually being here, you froze. You completely shut down. You kept thinking about everything that could go wrong or all the possible ways you could make a fool of yourself. _What if he changes his mind about me? What if he realizes that I was really creepy in the video?_ There were too many what if’s going on in your head for you to think straight. _Come on Colleen get it together. You’re gonna knock on Gabe’s door, he’ll invite you in, and you’re going to have a wonderful time and fall in love._

Taking a deep breath, you gathered all the courage you had just to knock on his door. You quickly smoothed out your dress and pulled a strand of hair behind your ear. _Stop being so paranoid, you look fine_! You scolded yourself.

A second later, your dream walking on legs answered the door.

“Hey Colleen!” he greeted. He held the door open for you, “Come on in.”

“Hey, Gabe.” You smiled at him, butterflies fluttering in your stomach just at the sight of him.

“Wow. Umm... you really dressed up.” Gabe observed. You noticed that he was just in jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket. Okay… this is uncomfortable. You are the only one dressed up. You rubbed one of your arms, feeling very awkward with the situation at hand.

“What,” you breathed out a laugh, “this old thing?” Although, it was not old, in fact, _very_ new thanks to a certain somebody. “So where do you want to go? I heard the new, hip place is Dave and Busters.” You suggested.

“The place with the metal claw?” he asked the same words you had.

You laughed, “Yeah, that’s the one.”

He smiled, “Well, I took the liberty of making our reservations. Here come with me.” He led you into his little dining area. _Wow,_ you thought, _this place is nice._ He had a long wooden table with placemats and around the table were white cushioned chairs. In your apartment, it took two steps to go from the kitchen to your dining area, if you could even call it that. Moreover, you didn’t know if you even owned placemats.

“My roommates, Chuck and Michael are out tonight, so they won’t be bothering us.” He informed you. “I hope you like seafood, I’m learning how to make sushi online and I thought that would be a little more intimate.” _One Point for Gabe. That is so thoughtful of him,_ you thought.

 “Yeah, I like that.” You assured him. Then, from somewhere in the apartment, a little ding went off.

“Ah, that must be the crab cakes. Make yourself at home. That,” he pointed at the table where there were glass mugs set out, “is Japanese tea. Enjoy.” You smiled at him as he left to go to the kitchen.

Once you made sure he was out of the room, you whipped your head back to the room in front of you. _Oh good lord! Nobody will be making out from three feet apart._ You remembered what Dean had instructed you and the table was set up so that you and Gabe would be sitting across from each other.

As quickly as you could go in your heels, you shuffled over to one of the chairs. Wrapping your arms around it, you pulled the chair across the wooden floor so it would be next to the chair that was placed across the table and be at the head of the table. You cringed when the chair made a loud and obnoxious noise when you moved it. “Shhh.” After getting the chair in place, you rushed to move the plate and mug but in all of your haste, you knocked over the mug, spilling out all of the tea. _Ugh_ , you hit your forehead, _stupid Japanese tea._

“Is everything all right?” Gabe poked his head into the dining room.

You relaxed your body against the table and laughed to try to cover up your disarrayed state. “Oh, I just felt a little draft over there so-so I moved the ch-chair over here.”

“Oh, I can turn off the air.” He offered and left the room without waiting for your answer.

“Yeah… great.” 

_Okay, think what is next. The vibe! What did Dean say? The darker the better._ You looked around the room and found that it was excessively bright for your liking. Again, you scanned the room for a way to dim it down. _Aha!_ There was a lamp in the corner. Once another time, you shuffled over the other side of the room to turn off the lamp. Unfortunately, the nob on the lamp was not doing anything. _What kind of lamp is this?!_ Turning your head, you found on the wall next to you a set of light switches. _Score!_

You scrambled over to the wall to fix the brightness of the lights. Flipping one of the switches turned off all the lights on one side of the room; the other set turned off the other side of the room. If both of the switches were off, then the whole room went completely dark. _Great!_ _What am I supposed to do now!_

Yet again, Gabe had perfect timing. “Hey Colleen, oh! Did we blow a fuse?” he asked. You through yourself against the wall to cover up the light switches. _Shit, what do I say? Think Colleen think._ You looked up to see a picture of Gabe with, who must have been, Michael and Chuck.

“Oh, I know, it’s weird. I was just over here, looking at this picture of you and your buddies, and all of a sudden, Bam! Darkness!” you rambled.

“I’ll just flip all the breakers and turn all the lights on.”

“Oh, your gonna turn them all back on? Okay.” While he left the room you flicked the lights back on and ran over to the table as if your life depended on it.

“What?” you gasped loudly so he would hear. And he sure did. He popped back into the room like a meerkat popping his head out of the ground.

“Hey, light there be light, right?” he joked.

You forced a laugh, “Yeah, from the Bible cool. That is so crazy. So umm… what are the crabs doing?” you reminded him so you could get out of that awkward situation.

“Oh yeah!” Gabe left you to go attend to his crab cakes.

 

 

After Gabe finally finished the dinner, he set all the sushi out on the table, and you both sat down to eat the dinner he had prepared.

“Oh my goodness, this is amazing,” you marveled at all the seafood he had made, “this is like, restaurant quality food! It must have taken you hours to make this!” you picked up with your chopsticks what looked to be a spiral noodle. “Do you have, like, a special tool for this?”

He laughed at your commentary, “Yeah, no, it definitely took me hours to make. But anything involving my hands, I pick up pretty quickly. Like, my pranks.” He smirked at you. You giggled, remembering one of the pranks he had pulled in the building that one of your classes had been currently taking place in.

“Oh, yeah! I remember when you let three chickens loose in Lincoln Hall.” You laughed as you retold the account, “You numbered them one, two, and four, so everyone thought that there was still a third chicken loose in the building! My professor was about to lose his marbles, searching everywhere for that chicken! I think he still looks around the building sometimes for that “missing” chicken.” Gabe chuckled at the memory.

“Definitely, one of the classics and one of my finer moments.” He smiled at you while leaning in.

_Game on_ , you said inside your head.

“What?” he asked while squinting his eyes. _Shit, you didn’t say that inside your head._

“I said, go on, with what you were saying.” You covered yourself.

“Anyways, I believe I am a changed man now.” He declared.

“Oh really?” you doubtfully questioned.

“Yes, as a matter of fact. I am currently learning how to play the guitar.” He said in all seriousness.

“Oh, you’re being serious.” You stated with a hint of surprise.

“Oh, Colleen, don’t sound so surprised! I can be a man of many trades.” He informed.

“Oh, I bet you are.” You alluded.

“In fact, I just happen to be a great kisser.” He declared and without hesitation, Gabe urgently pressed his lips against yours.

_Oh my god!_ You couldn’t believe this was actually happening! You’ve dreamed about his moment for years! _Hallelujah! It’s a miracle_. But when you pulled back for a breath, the person you were kissing was Dean. _What?! What the actual hell?!_

“What’s up?” Dean asked. “Ooo! Is that a California roll?”

You pushed him off you, and so ended your little reverie. _Ew_ is all you could think at the moment. You felt violated. You let out a tiny whimper, not even meaning to.

“Uh… Colleen? You okay?” Gabe asked.

“Uh… uh… yeah! I’m just… really… feeling this sushi! It’s just…just doing something to me!” you exclaimed as a response.

Gabe let out a breathy laugh.  “Well, thanks. So, like I was saying, with guitar, the chord progression is like a poem. The intertwining of the chords… it’s like… two people in love.”  As you were trying to listen to Gabe, you again pictured Dean behind him.

_“Yeah, it’s like a midget jerking it. Meow meow meow! Haha, you get it, ‘cus Gabe is small_.” You laughed at the thought of Dean saying that. _No! Get out of my head!_

“In fact, I’ve been working on a new song for the past two weeks. I could play it for you if you like?” he offered. _Yes!_   You internally cheered. _He was trying to impress you._

“Totally!” you agreed. Unfortunately, your dream version of Dean appeared again, this time next to you.

_“Yeah totally!”_ he imitated you. _“I even came up with a poem myself. –There once was a boy named Gabe Evans who seemed to have all the luck. The girl of his interest was in awestruck. She just wished they would-”_ But before Dream Dean could finish his poem, you snapped yourself out of it.

You abruptly stood up from the table, making a clattering noise as you did so.

“Okay, I think I am going to go to the restroom.” You decided. You turned your head to Gabe, “Where is it?” you questioned in an interrogative voice.

“Down the hall and to the left.” He said a hint of uncertainty and concern in his voice.

“Thanks.” You forced a grin and left the room as fast as you could.

In the bathroom, you looked at yourself in the mirror. Then you slapped yourself in the face.

“Come on Colleen!” you scolded yourself aloud. “What are you doing to me?! You’re not into Dean are you?!”

Again, Dean appeared next to you in the mirror, not helping things at all. He was in his football jersey with a foam finger on his hand.

_“You bet your ass you are!”_ he exclaimed in your head, cheering like an obnoxious football fan. _“Who’s number one in your head?! This guy! This guy is!”_ he cheered while pointing the foam finger at himself.

“What?! No! Get out! Get out!” you pushed him out of your head.  

You took a deep breath and looked yourself in the mirror.

“Get it together Y/F/N  Y/L/N. You’re on a date with _the_ Gabriel Evans. Gabe is going to play you a song and you’re gonna love it.” You coached yourself. Taking another deep breath, you felt confident that you could go back out there without any more problems. 

 You walked back out to the dining room and saw that Gabe had cleared the table and had his guitar ready.

“You want to take this outside?” he asked. You just nodded as a response.

 

 

Getting situated, Gabe started to tune some of the strings.

You both were sitting on a bench that was placed in a garden in front of the apartment complex he lived in. It was a really high-end kind of place. However, it was chilly out, and you stupidly forgot a jacket. The dress had no sleeves and you rushed out of your apartment, your mind clouded with too many other thoughts to remember a stupid jacket.  You let out a small shiver as a gust of wind passed by.

“Are you cold?” Gabe asked.

“Just a little.” You dumbed it down, not wanting him to worry.

“Well here,” he offered you his jacket, “take this.” You wrapped the soft zip-up around your shoulders. “Better?”

“Yeah, definitely. Thanks.” You smiled at him.

Gabe started to strum a few chords. “Okay here is the song. Be gentle, I’m still working on it:

               Baby, you set the world on fire

               And girl, you are my heart’s desire.

               Don’t you know it’s true

               In everything we do.

               I just want it to be the twooooo… of us.” He strained a little at the end, “I don’t know exactly how to rhyme that last part.” _Yeah, no kidding_ you thought, but as soon as the thought came to your mind, it left.

You shook your head, “No, it’s so good though.” _Lie_. You just lied right out of your ass.

“Thank you!” he accepted the compliment with ease. “I thought it was great! I’ve been working hard on it soo…” You nodded your head along with him. “But enough about me! What about you?” he inquired. “How have you been after the video?”

“It’s… it’s been a little tough. A lot of people saw it. To be honest, what sucked the most about it was that it caused a fight between my best friends and I.” you shared with Gabe.

“Jenna and Lizzy right?” he asked. You nodded. “So what happened?”

“Fortunately, we made up. And they helped me get through it.”

“Yeah, I’m not surprised. They seem like great and really understanding people!” he professed.

“I’m-I’m sorry, are you friends with them?” you asked.

“Yeah, of course! I have English with Jenna, and I am taking a drama class with Lizzy.”

“Oh.” Is all you said. _Of course, he is in those classes with them. Of course, he knows them, who doesn’t?_

“Lizzy is an amazing actress and dancer and dresser.” He laughed. “And Jenna is like this fiery, diva. _Caliente!_ ” he exaggerated.

You laughed along with him, “Yeah, she is very spicy. But yeah, we’re getting along great now...so…”

You both were quiet for a moment. You could hear the crickets in the background chirping. Everything was just… peaceful. Certainly not comfortable or safe, but peaceful. Quiet. All of sudden, you notice Gabe was leaning in. He was actually leaning in and this was _no_ dream! No way was this happening! You began to also lean in, both of you closing some of the space in between you when all of sudden, “Is it intimidating?” he asked.

_What?... I’m sorry, WHAT?!_ You screamed in your mind. You were lost.

“What?” you asked in a dumbfounded tone. Gabe paused for a moment and then continued.

“Being friends with… and it’s rare that I point this out because I do not subscribe to the American view of feminine beauty. But such… powerful women.” He finished.

_Oh no. No, no, no, no._ On the outside, your face was probably calm and collected, however, on the inside you were in panic mode. You squinted your eyes at him. _Please don’t tell me he is saying I think he is saying_ , you stressed.

Gabe started up again, “A friend of mine was wondering, did they have dates to the charity ball next weekend?”

You tried to keep your composure, but really what you felt like doing was screaming your ass off, cry and sob (and not in the pretty one single tear drip kind of way, no buckets, and gallons of ugly tears), then all you wanted to do was puke. You were disgusted. But, luckily, you stayed composed and none of these emotions and reactions showed.

However, you did just sit there and stare at Gabe with your jaw dropped. Your eyes were wide open, like a deer caught in headlights. All you could do was sit there and blink at him. For some reason, the crickets seemed to be even louder at the moment.

_You have to be shitting me?! This is unbelievable! So much for there being an actual freakin’ decent guy out there!_

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of just sitting there, you were able to form somewhat of a voice to speak.

“Are… are y-you DUFFing me?” you stuttered, barely able to get that sentence out. He gave you a look, a look that showed he really didn’t know what you were talking about.

“Uh… ex-excuse me?”

_Oh my god. He totally is!_

“You are! This a DUFF!” you accused him. You shook your head, “Uh- you’re… you’re using me!” He squinted his eyes at you. _Ugh! What an idiot!_ “To try and get closer to Jenna and Lizzy!” You fumed with fury. “Because… because you think I’m approachable. Aren’t you?”

“Okay-okay, look. When I asked you to come over to hang, I thought you were gonna bring Jenna and Lizzy.” You threw him a look that said he was possibly one of the most ignorant and dense people in the world.

“What in hell possessed you to make you think I would bring them?” you spit. _God,_ you couldn’t believe this was happening. “You know what, don’t answer that question. I _really_ do not want to know.” You stood up, wanting to leave a soon as possible. 

You to a few steps from the bench, muttering to yourself about how couldn’t believe it, and that you were stupid enough to think for five seconds…

“Colleen,” Gabe called out.

“What?” you turned back, not in the mood to hear more from him.

“My-my sweatshirt?” he asked while reaching out his hand for his jacket back. You looked down at your shoulders to see that you had the green jacket over your shoulders. You let out a short laugh while looking around. _Perfect,_ you thought. There was a trash can about three feet away from you. You stepped over to it.

“Okay, you know what? Here, you can have it!” you roughly threw it inside the trashcan. “Oh!” you looked back at him with a threatening stare, daring him to challenge you. _Wait; did I just see what I thought I saw?_

You looked back down into the trashcan and looked back up to Gabe.

“Oh hell no.” is all you said. Reaching down into the trash can, you picked up a carryout bag that said ‘Mr. Sushi’ on it. “Mr. Sushi?”

Gabe sat there with his hands folded on his lap, looking very uncomfortable. He shrugged his shoulders and pointed back the guitar that was sitting on the other side of the bench, “The-the song was mine.”

_Ha!_ You laughed in your head. You threw the sushi bag back into the can.

“Yeah, I’m not surprised because it was a piece of shit; and so are you.” You pointed to him. You were infuriated! _This was not supposed to happen!_ “Have a nice night.” You finished with and stomped away.

While walking to your car you decided to call Dean. You really needed to hear a friendly voice.

You wait while your phone dialed his number. “Hello…” his voice answered.

“Dean its Colleen.”

“Just kidding it’s my voice mail.” Then the beep went off to indicate the phone was ready to take a message.

“Dean it’s Colleen.” your voice started to crack; you were on the verge of breaking down into tears. “Turns out Gabe was DUFFing me the whole time. I would just really like to talk to you okay. Call me back.” You hung up and headed in the direction towards your apartment.

The walk back to your apartment felt like forever, all you could do was replay the whole night over in your head. _God!_ You thought to yourself a million times. _I’m such an idiot._

As you walked into your apartment, most of your tears had dried up. You slammed your purse on the kitchen tabled and threw your heels off. You walked over the freezer and grabbed a pint of ice cream. After snatching a spoon, you walked out to your back balcony to sit outside and look at the stars.

After closing the door, you heard a couple of giggles come from somewhere to your left. You looked over to see Dean on his own balcony with another girl. _Great._ When you got a second look, you realized that the girl was Amy. _Typical_ , you thought. _Just when I need him, he gets back with her._ You wished you could say you weren’t surprised, but you actually kind of were. You thought Dean was changing, becoming the way he used to be. Their giggles grew louder and you took a step back. They were obviously tipsy and they hadn’t seen you yet so you were going to go back inside. You couldn’t bear to listen to them. However, Amy said something that caught your ear and peaked your interest.

“Dean,” she obnoxiously giggled, “do you love me?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever babe.” He replied without much care. For some reason, he didn’t look mentally present, like his mind was somewhere else.

“I am I your best friend?” she asked. _What?_ You screamed in your head. _What kind of question is that, Amy you are a crazy girl! Who would be stupid enough to be your best friend? Plus, Dean has me for his best friend!_

“Of course!” he replied. You did a double take. _Okay_ , is all you could think. You didn’t want to admit it, but his confession really stung.

You turned around and walked back inside, just ready to shut the world out. _What a crappy night._ You didn’t even want the ice cream anymore so you placed it back in the freezer. You mopped back into your room and threw yourself on the bed, not even bothering to take off the uncomfortable dress. You were just done. So done.

Unfortunately, when you decided to walk back inside, you missed Dean repeat himself and add on, “Of course, Colleen.”

 

 

You woke up the next morning, the sun shining through the blinds. The clock on your nightstand said that it was 8:30. It was Sunday so you had nothing to do all day. By this time next week, the festival workers would be getting ready to set up the tent for the ball.

You didn’t even know if you wanted to go to the ball now. Everything seemed pointless and a waste of time and energy.  

You stayed in bed until 10:30, working on a paper for your English class. Finally getting up for the day, you put on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. When you walked out into your kitchen, you put your computer on the counter and grabbed the fruit loops. You poured yourself a bowl of fruit loops and took one bite when there was a knock on the door. You groaned, not wanting to get from your seat and talk to a person.

As you reached the door, you looked through the peephole to see who it was. _Great, just the person I wanted to see today._

“Go away Dean!” you yelled through the door.

“Colleen, why?” he asked, not understanding.

“I don’t want to see you so go away!”

He laughed in uncertainty, “Colleen, I don’t understand, did I do something wrong?”

“Why don’t you go ask your best friend?” you retorted.

“What? Colleen, I heard your voicemail, I am so sorry that happened. Gabe is a jerk and doesn’t deserve you. Can I just please come in?”

“You said she was your best friend!” you accused him.

“What are you talking about?!” he yelled in frustration.

“I thought you were different Dean, I thought you changed and we were best friends again.” You let out a quiet sob, the tears coming to the surface.

“Is this about Amy?” Dean finally caught on, “Because if it is, Colleen, I only asked her to come over because after you left last night I felt lonely and needed someone. Then we got drunk and I don’t remember anything, but I swear, nothing happened.” He assured.

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” You softly said. You leaned against the door and slid down to the floor, tired of everything that has happened. “Just…please go away.”

After that, you didn’t hear anything else and guessed that Dean had left.

You sat on the floor for a few more minutes until you decided you were not going to be the next teenage sob story. That was not you. You picked yourself up from the spot on the floor to go finish your breakfast. In times like this, you remembered what your mom used to say to you when you felt like giving up, _“Colleen, listen to me. Sitting around and moping will do nothing. Pick yourself up because you are Colleen L/N. You take every hit and you get your ass back up because you are strong.”_ And with that attitude, you knew nothing could stop you.

After your breakfast and your self-pep talk, you decided to go on a run to clear your head.

You pulled open the front door, and Dean fell down on the floor. You rolled your eyes at him. So, he had still been there.

“Colleen…” he started to say until you cut him off.

“Shut it, Winchester.” You snapped. You walked over to the steps than with a quick decision; you turned back towards him and flipped him off.

 

 

Arriving back at your apartment, you were satisfied with your run and glad to see that Dean had left. After a shower, you felt much better, physically and somewhat mentally. The memories from the previous night still stung, but now, you were filled with anger, not self-pity. The charity ball was a week away and you had a lot of work to do for the bar. Instead of drowning in self-pity, why not work hard to distract yourself. There was a completely new shipment of liquor coming in just for the festival. 

You were currently behind the bar serving drinks. You’ve been going along with your plan for almost a week now, taking extra shifts and spending all of your other free time on school work and avoiding Dean. You hadn’t seen him since the morning after your date. You did miss him, but that didn’t mean you wanted to be with him. You just couldn’t get past the fact that he really hadn’t changed.

As you were making an old fashion for a customer, you saw from your peripheral vision, someone sit down on the other side of the bar.

“I’ll be with you in a minute.” You called out to the new customer. As you put the drink in front of your current customer, you turned to the stranger while saying, “What can I get you.” However, upon seeing whom it was you stopped short.

“Hiya, Colleen.” The man said.

“Get out.” You demanded.

“Look, I came to say thanks.” He quietly said like he was going to give up.

“For what?”

“I passed psych with a B. Thanks to you. Can I have a beer?” he asked.

Because he was a paying customer, you had no choice but to give him the beer. You slammed the bottle in front of him.

“Yeah well, I’m glad you got what you wanted. Now you can leave me alone and go back to your jock-ass sucking life.”

“What the hell Colleen?!” Dean snapped. You through your head up surprised to hear the anger in his voice. “I thought we were good. Everything was great between us. Why do you treat me like I am some idiot ass-hole!” his voice rising. Some of the people around you were turning their attention towards you. You hated being the center of attention, especially at the place of your work.

“Dean,” you warned him.

“No!” he kept on going, “I miss you! Okay! I never cared about Amy! Never!” he started slurring his words. _Did he come in here drunk?_

“Dean… are you drunk?” you asked. He just laughed as a response. _Great!_ You thought, _just what I need, a drunk Dean on my hands._ “Dean,” you stepped closer to him, the bar as the only thing between the both of you, “I need you to leave, _now_.” You stared into his eyes so he knew that you meant it. You both stood there like that for what felt like forever, no one moving, testing to see who would blink first. It really didn’t help that you were both stubborn.

Your coworker, who was a tall, muscular man, came over to the both of you. “Is there a problem here?” he asked in his deep smooth voice.

Finally, Dean sighed, giving up.

“No. It’s a good here, right Colleen?” He squinted his eyes at you before dropping a ten on the bar, paying way over the amount, but he just walked right out of the bar without another word. 

You breathed out a heavy sigh that you were holding. You thought you would feel a heavy weight lift off your shoulders now that he was gone, but instead, it felt like the weight of the world was on your shoulders. You didn’t feel any better, in fact, you felt much worse.

“Hey you okay?” the man next to you asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine Danny.” You brushed off his attempts to comfort you.

“Who was he, if you don’t mind me asking?”

You smirked to yourself, _who was he?_ You wished you knew.

“Just an old friend.” Is all you answered.           

 

 

A few days had passed slowly and silently, no contact with Dean and just a lot of work. You needed to get out of your apartment and away from the bar. You decided to call the girls to see if they wanted to go out tonight. And of course, they said yes, anything to get you out into society.

Later that night the two girls showed up at your door, ready to take you out.

Lizzy gave you a smile and then threw something in your face. “Here put this on,” she commanded.

“What?” you looked at the piece of clothing. “Why? I’m already wearing clothes.”

“Honey, you’re wearing jean shorts and a tank top, as far as I know, you don’t own any dresses. Plus, the place we’re going has a dress code and you are breaking it.”

“Where are we going?” you inquired.

“Club 180” Jenna answered. “Now go change, they’ll be opening soon.”

Giving them a big sigh and a roll of your eyes, you turned to go to your room.

When you entered your room, you gave the dress a good look. It was a grayish-tannish color. It was a little short, it had a V-neck with tank top straps. But it was loose on you, so that was nice. At the bottom of the dress and by the straps, there were silver sequin stripes.

After you put it on you thought it didn’t look so bad, and it was comfortable. Much better than the stupid dress, that stupid Dean bought you. You actually really liked this dress on you. _Wow_ , you thought, _Lizzy really is good at fashion._ After putting on the black heels that you had borrowed from Lizzy for your date with Gabe, you were ready.

You walked out to your friends who were in the kitchen with a bottle of vodka and shot glasses.

“What is this?” you asked. “I thought we were going to the club to drink.”

They both smiled at each other and laughed.

“She has so much to learn.” Jenna snickered.

“Then we must teach her well, ” Lizzy added.

“What a sad girl.” Jenna joked.

“Guys, I’m right here.”

“Yes! And you look beautiful!” Lizzy fawned over your outfit.

“Thanks to you. So what’s with the shots?”

“My goodness, you sheltered child,” Jenna began and now it was your turn to roll your eyes at her. “At clubs, especially popular ones, which is one we are going to, it takes forever to get into, if you can even get in. And once you get into the overly crowded club, you manage to order your drinks, which are super expensive. Then you wait a while to get your one drink, which is hard to drink while everyone is dancing and you want to, that you never end up drunk. So drink ahead of time so you’ll be tipsy by the time you get there. Bottoms up.” She slid the shot in front of you. You just shrugged your shoulders figuring they knew what they were talking about.   

All three of you walked about four blocks until you arrived at Club 180. You never heard of this club before, though, that was no surprise since you never went clubbing.

The line was immensely long and you had been standing in the line for around forty-five minutes when you could see finally see the front. There were only a few people in front of you.

“Hey Jenna, you said this club was really hard to get into, so how do you expect us to get in?”

“My brother is an investor.” And you made an O shape with your mouth. You forgot about her brother, who was an alumnus of your college, he graduated last year and is two years older than Jenna.

“How is he doing?” you asked, it had been awhile since you last saw him, you were just a little freshmen.

“Good I guess,” She informed, “he just broke up with Marissa. I don’t know if Noah will ever settle down.” 

“Is he going to be here tonight?” Lizzy asked.

“Don’t know. I guess we’ll find out.”

By then, you were at the front of the line and Jenna walked up close to the bouncer and whispered in his ear. He glanced at you and Lizzy then back at her.

“Okay.” Is all he said and he pulled open the rope for the three of you.

As you walked through you turned to Jenna with a huge and childish grin on your face. You were already tipsy from all the shots you took so you weren’t exactly yourself. “Dude! That was totally badass! What did you say to him?” but she just gave you a smirk and kept walking. “Wow.” You breathed out like a total dumb ass.

As you entered the club people had already started gathering up on the dance floor and the DJ was spinning some tracks. The place was dark except for the walls that had neon lights and on the tables were bubble looking things with a blue glow coming from it. You noticed people were wearing glow sticks on their wrists.

You followed your two friends to get an empty table. After ordering a martini, you looked around the club to see if you knew anyone. However, before you could get a good look, you heard a voice from behind.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Jenna and her two little sidekicks.” You turned around to find the owner of the voice.

“Noah hey!” Jenna exclaimed, punching her brother’s shoulder as a greeting.

You couldn’t believe it was Noah, he looked so different. He was more toned, with amazing, amazing, muscles. His hair was dark with a new haircut, and his eyes were a dark chocolate.  His smile was beautiful and bright. He was tall and looked down at the three of you.

“No way!” he exclaimed with a smile creeping on his face. “Is that Colleen L/N?” You gave him a smile as you rolled your eyes.  “When did you get the boobs?” he jokingly asked.

You felt a blush rise on your face. “How come you haven’t hit puberty?” you threw the comeback at him, but it was _very_ obvious you were joking because there is no way this man has _not_ hit puberty yet. He chuckled at your sass.

“As feisty as I remember, glad that hasn’t changed.” He gave you a wink. You looked away from him; you didn’t like how this conversation was going. He is Jenna’s brother, so no flirting.

“Oh! Look Jenna it’s Brian and Kelly!” Lizzy announced. She pulled Jenna by her arm into the crowd of people, going to the place where she found their friends. _Great!_ You thought to yourself, _now I’m left alone._   But then you thought of the man still standing next to you. _Well, sort of._

“So how-”

“What’s been-”

You had both started talking at the same time and when you each realized it you chuckled.

“You first.” He said.

You gave him a warm smile. “What’s been going on with you Noah? I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Well,” he looked around the club then back at you, “I’ve spent a lot of time here, helping things run and you know, partying.” He smirked at you. “And I’ve started a new project, but I’ll save that for another time.” _So there will be another time?_ You thought to yourself. “How about you Colleen? You still working at that bar?”

You nodded your head, “Yeah, we’ve been getting really busy with festival coming up this weekend.”

“Oh yeah, and I saw that they were adding a charity ball on the last day.” He responded. You smiled at him, surprised that he would notice something like that, it’s not very like him. However, your gaze traveled to somewhere behind him, your smile dropped. _Why did this have to happen to me? Did the universe hate me?!_ You screamed in your head.

“Oh, you have to be shitting me.” You said while turning your gaze to the floor, hoping the certain person wouldn’t see you.

“Colleen what is it?” Noah’s sounded genuinely concerned. He placed his hand on your arm, “Colleen?”

“Is that Colleen L/N.” The voice was close. _Please go, please go._ You pleaded in your head.

“Hey, I’m talking to you!” The voice hissed. You turned around to face the voice, not needing this asshole right now. You just wanted to get away, forget your problems for a night.

“Damn girl, what happened because you look hot!” Gabe exclaimed. You gave him a death glare, only wanting to punch him.

“Colleen, who is this?” Noah asked, you could feel him come close to you and your back was now pressed against his chest.

Gabe looked up at Noah, who was a good two feet taller than him.

“I’m the dude who is taking her home tonight.” He slurred some of his words. He is obviously a little tipsy.

“Look, dude,” Noah’s tone became harder and deeper… and hotter. But you were sure that was just the alcohol talking. “I don’t care how cool and amazing you think you are, but you don’t just tell women you taking them home. It’s disgusting and incredibly rude. So go take a walk.” He commanded. _Wow_ , is all you could think.

Gabe’s facial expression turned into one of annoyance and anger. “Oh yeah, and who the hell are you?”

“I’m the dude who will beat your ass if you lay a hand on any girl here tonight.” Noah threatened while at the same time mocking Gabe’s phrasing from earlier.

Gabe just laughed at his threat and grabbed your hand.

“Come on, Colleen, I know you still want me.” You were disgusted by him and now you were 100% sure you dodged a bullet with him. But before you could actually react, something flashed before your eyes and Gabe was on the floor with a dark silhouette above him, beating the crap out of him.

But you were a little confused because it wasn’t Noah. He was still behind you with his arm around your waist and your back against him, with a protective stance. So if it wasn’t Noah, who was it?

After a few more seconds of you being shocked, Noah went to get the man off of Gabe.

Once Noah could get ahold of the stranger, Gabe got up and quickly ran. You caught a glimpse of his face, and let’s just say, it’s not so pretty anymore.

“Yeah that’s right, run!” you heard the stranger yell. “And if you ever touch her again, I’ll kill you!”

_Oh god_ , you thought. You knew that voice from anywhere. This night just keeps getting worse and worse.

You turned towards the two men and Dean walked right up to you and gave you a hug. But you immediately pushed him away. You saw a flash of hurt across his face, but he quickly brushed it away.

“Colleen are you okay?” Dean asked.

“What the hell Dean!” you yelled at him. He was obviously not expecting that reaction because his face was one of surprise and confusion.

“Um… don’t you mean thank you?” He gave you a look that said ‘duh’.

You rolled your eyes, “No I mean, what are you doing here?”

“Saving your ass! That douche bag had it coming anyways with what he did to you! And then he started touching you…” His face contorted to one of deep hatred but you didn’t want to hear it.

“So! I had it under control Dean, I didn’t need you sweeping in and ‘saving the day’.”

“Ha! Had it under control? You’re lucky I was there!”

“God Dean! You’re so infuriating!” You screamed at him, not caring if you made a scene.

He took a step closer, now he was in your personal space. “Oh yeah? Now you know how it feels talking to you.” He shot back.

“Hey, hey.” Noah stepped in between the both of you. He turned towards Dean, his defensive stance returning. “Thanks for doing the dirty work for me, but it’s obvious she doesn’t want you here so just leave her alone.”

“You’re dirty work for you?” Dean responded with a look of disbelief on his face. “You were just standing there. You weren’t going to protect her! She could’ve gotten hurt!”

You saw Noah’s jaw lock and he was tensing up. “I was getting there when you just showed up out of nowhere. It wasn’t even your business.”

Dean laughed, “It didn’t have to be, the man grabbed Colleen! I wasn’t just going to stand by and watch something horrible happen to her!” His voice was rising with an angrier tone. Dean started to notice how Noah was positioned in front of you.  “Why am I even explaining this to _you_? Who are you?”

_Not this again_ , you thought as you shrunk behind Noah. _This was ridiculous!_ The two men were closer to each other, giving each other a stare down. They were about the same height so it wasn’t hard to look each other in the eyes.

 “Look, I don’t want to fight you.” Noah began, “I appreciate you helping out, but she doesn’t want to see you. I don’t know who you are, but it’s probably for the best if you just leave.” He insisted.

“Leave her with you? Yeah, no. I don’t trust you.” Dean’s stubborn side coming out.

“I’ll take her home-” But before Noah could finish what he was saying, Dean threw a punch to his face. Noah fell to the floor, not expecting the blow.

“DEAN!” You yelled at him. “What the hell is wrong with you?!” You grabbed Noah’s arm to help him up.

“Colleen, he-”

“Shut up!” you glared at him, “He is a friend Dean! I don’t understand you! I don’t even you know you anymore. You hook up with Amy but then come here and act like some stupid jealous boyfriend. Just leave.” You accused him. You examined Noah’s face and never looked back at Dean.

“Noah I’m so sorry.” You apologized to him.

He gave you a soft smile, “Don’t worry about it. Are you okay?”

“I don’t know, well physical yes, but mentally…” He gave you a concerned look. Wow, here he was with a swollen cheek, worrying about you. “Come on,” you pulled his arm. “Before anyone comes back to pick another fight.”


End file.
